Standard Lemma guide

xylophone

noun · verb · 4 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈzaɪ.ləˌfəʊn/
  • General-American: /ˈzaɪləˌfoʊn/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: Z AY1 L AH0 F OW2 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any musical instrument (percussion idiophone) made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like mallet; the standard Western concert xylophone or one of its derivatives.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music

Examples

  • All I know how to play on my xylophone is "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Would you like to hear it?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To play a xylophone or to play something else as though it was a xylophone.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

verb

Meaning 3

To move above a ridged surface or series of surfaces so as to hit every ridge, in a manner similar to playing quickly and sequentially on a xylophone.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

a percussion instrument with wooden bars tuned to produce a chromatic scale and with resonators; played with small mallets

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: marimba

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: percussion instrument, percussive instrument

History

Etymology

From xylo- (“of wood”) + -phone (“sound”).

Across languages

Translations

81 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: xilofoon — musical instrument
  • Albanian: ksilofon — musical instrument
  • Amharic: ዛይሎፎን (zaylofon) — musical instrument
  • Arabic: سِيلُوفُون (sīlūfūn) — musical instrument
  • Armenian: քսիլոֆոն (kʻsilofon) — musical instrument
  • Asturian: xilófonu — musical instrument
  • Azerbaijani: ksilofon — musical instrument
  • Basque: xilofono — musical instrument
  • Belarusian: ксілафо́н (ksilafón) — musical instrument
  • Bulgarian: ксилофо́н (ksilofón) — musical instrument
  • Burmese: ပတ္တလား (patta.la:) — musical instrument
  • Catalan: xilòfon — musical instrument
  • Cherokee: ᎠᏓ ᏗᎦᎾᎵ ᏗᎬᏅᏍᏙᏗ (ada diganali digvnvsdodi) — musical instrument
  • Chinese Cantonese: 木琴 (muk6 kam4) — musical instrument
  • Chinese Mandarin: 木琴 (mùqín) — musical instrument
  • Czech: xylofon — musical instrument
  • Danish: xylofon — musical instrument
  • Dutch: xylofoon — musical instrument
  • Esperanto: ksilofono — musical instrument
  • Estonian: ksülofon — musical instrument
  • Faroese: sylofon — musical instrument
  • Finnish: ksylofoni — musical instrument
  • French: xylophone — musical instrument
  • West-Frisian: ksylofoan — musical instrument
  • Galician: xilófono — musical instrument
  • German: Xylophon — musical instrument
  • Greek: ξυλόφωνο (xylófono) — musical instrument
  • Hebrew: קסילופון (ksilofón) — musical instrument
  • Hungarian: xilofon — musical instrument
  • Icelandic: sílófónn — musical instrument
  • Ido: xilofono — musical instrument
  • Indonesian: xilofon — musical instrument
  • Irish: xileafón — musical instrument
  • Italian: xilofono — musical instrument
  • Japanese: 木琴 (mokkin) — musical instrument
  • Japanese: シロフォン (shirofon) — musical instrument
  • Korean: 실로폰 (sillopon) — musical instrument
  • Northern Kurdish: darînk — musical instrument
  • Latin: xylophonium — musical instrument
  • Latvian: ksilofons — musical instrument
  • Lithuanian: ksilofonas — musical instrument
  • Low German: Xylophon — musical instrument
  • Low German: Xylofon — musical instrument
  • Macedonian: ксилофон (ksilofon) — musical instrument
  • Malagasy: atranatrana — musical instrument
  • Malay: xilofon — musical instrument
  • Marathi: जाय्लोफोन (jāylophon) — musical instrument
  • Mirandese: xilofone — musical instrument
  • Moksha: кальхциямат (kalxcijämat) — musical instrument
  • Moksha: ксилофон (ksilofon) — musical instrument
  • Norwegian Bokmål: xylofon — musical instrument
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: xylofon — musical instrument
  • Occitan: xilofòn — musical instrument
  • Persian: سنتور چوبی — musical instrument
  • Polish: ksylofon — musical instrument
  • Portuguese: xilofone — musical instrument
  • Romanian: xilofon — musical instrument
  • Russian: ксилофо́н (ksilofón) — musical instrument
  • Scottish Gaelic: saidhleafon — musical instrument
  • Scottish Gaelic: sèileafon — musical instrument
  • Serbo-Croatian: ksilofon — musical instrument
  • Silesian: ksylofůn — musical instrument
  • Sinhalese: සයිලොෆෝන් (sayilofōn) — musical instrument
  • Slovak: xylofón — musical instrument
  • Slovene: ksilofon — musical instrument
  • Spanish: xilófono — musical instrument
  • Spanish: marimba — musical instrument
  • Swahili: marimba ya kizungu — musical instrument
  • Swedish: xylofon — musical instrument
  • Tagalog: silopono — musical instrument
  • Tamil: சுரம் இசைவி (curam icaivi) — musical instrument
  • Thai: ระนาด (rá-nâat) — musical instrument
  • Thai: ไซโลโฟน — musical instrument
  • Tibetan: ཤིང་དཀྲོལ། — musical instrument
  • Tonga (Malawi): mangurongondo class 6 — musical instrument
  • Turkish: ksilofon — musical instrument
  • Ukrainian: ксилофо́н (ksylofón) — musical instrument
  • Uzbek: ksilofon — musical instrument
  • Vietnamese: mộc cầm — musical instrument
  • Welsh: seiloffon — musical instrument
  • Yiddish: קסילאָפֿאָן (ksilofon) — musical instrument